Prologue:
The wind whipped about the small ship, tossing it effortlessly among the waves. Singing cut like daggers through the storm's fury and into the hearts of the crew and trembling passengers, instilling fear and pain into the women and lethal attraction into the men.
"Mommy, make the singing stop!" A small girl cried as she huddled on her bunk, covering her ears with her hands as tears poured from her green eyes and down her cheeks. Her young mother pulled her daughter into her arms, exposing her own ears to the the agonizing songs. After covering the girl's hands with her own, she kissed her dark hair and begin to softly sing a nonsensical child's tune in hopes it would block out the chilling music.
When she had finished the first verse and moved to the second, their cabin door was flung open and a crewman rushed forward, grabbing both of them by their arms.
"Hurry! The ship's going down!" His eyes focused on the white face of the mother and the sobbing child.
"What's happened?" The mother demanded.
"The ship hit rocks. We don't have much time!" Without hesitation, he dragged the pair to the upper decks. As they surfaced, both gasped.
It was maddeningly beautiful.
Black waves, capped in frothing foam, smashed themselves against the ship and surrounding rocks, lit up only by the lightning splitting the sky. The mad waves threw the tiny craft they had called home all the way across the Atlantic all about, hurling it against rock. Wood splintered and the girl barely kept on her feet.
"Follow me!" The young sailor cried as he led them towards a life boat. His eyes were wild as he frantically looked about before seemingly drawing himself back to his purpose.
"Get in!" Neither of the ladies needed to be told twice. The mother hopped into the tiny boat and pulled her daughter with her, ignoring the blood dripping from her ears, quickly replacing her hands against her daughter's head.
The ship's crew seemed to have gone mad. Some were frozen in their places, eyes blank and empty, while others had flung themselves over the edge, not caring if they drowned or bashed their brains against the rocks.
Fortunately, none bothered the cabin boy and his two charges.
The girl buried her head into her mother's bosom, preferring the safety there to seeing the carnage around her. Her tears had paused but a fresh flood escaped. The boy dropped into the life boat and grabbed hold of the oars, his powerful arms dragging them through the water and propelling them away from the collapsing ship and the unearthly singing.
The daughter saw nothing but her mother watched as something dragged the wooden ship down into the raging ocean. Her fingers shook as she stroked her daughter's hair with one hand, being sure to keep her head pressed against her body in hopes that her flesh would block out any sound.
The cabin boy, try as he might, began to succumb to the calls, forgetting to row like he hand before. Crying out, the mother tried to remind him of his mission, but he was too far gone. His eyes blanked and he dropped the oars, abandoning them as he leaped into the water, swimming towards a rock. A bolt of lightning flashed behind it and revealed a woman lying on the black stone.
The mother shuddered, turning away from the form and grasping her daughter all the tighter.
"I love you." She whispered as their tiny boat was taken by a wave and hurled about. "I love you." She repeated as they smashed against one of the rocks.
"I love you, Mommy!" The girl screamed as their boat splintered and hurled them both into the black water. Unable to continue her hold on her daughter, the mother floundered before being yanked under.
The girl screamed for her mother but when all that answered were waves, she let out a wail, only to be silenced as a wave crashed over her, taking her under and filling her lungs with water. She surfaced moments later, coughing and sputtering as her cries for help and her mother became weaker. The rocks were far too slippery to grip and the waves tossed her around with no less ease than the ship.
After repeated dunkings, the girl weakened and found herself less able to hold her head above water, the cold seeping into her bones. Her eyes were blurring and, as she skipped beneath the waves, knowing this time she wouldn't come back, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and pull her against a chest.
A naked chest.
To Jareth, there was nothing more beautiful than a storm. The sheer power and grace of the waves captivated him and often he would leave the safety of his castle to explore the violence of surface.
He needn't fear drowning as human did. Even the injuries that he sustained from being tossed against some rocks were simple to heal. The paths through the sharp rocks were quite a game for him. A sleek body, fitted with a strong, lean tail, propelled him quickly and easily through the swirling waters.
The night was late and the moon completely obscured by the thunderous clouds. Bolts of lightning provided sufficient light for his path as he cut through the surface of the water, going under or over waves.
During one of his travels, he had seen dolphins and fancied their manners of movement.
As he paused by a rock to admire the surrounding waterscape, he happened to catch the distant notes of sirens, singing to the ruin of some vessel.
Since he had nothing else to do, he pursed the sound and watched as a small wooden ship was smashed against the wild rocks by the untamed waves. Bodies were visible upon higher rocks where the waves had flung them. At first glance, it appeared as if there was nothing he could do, but, he happened to look twice and see a small row boat trying to escape the wreckage. His interest peaked, he moved closer and watched as the sailor jumped from the boat and swam, to his death, towards a siren on a rock nearby.
She vanished and he was drawn down into the black waters, never to resurface.
Jareth drew nearer and before he could aid the two women in the life boat, the vessel was tossed against the rocks and dismembered, the older woman falling into the water and being dragged down by the waves' ferocity.
The girl, on the other hand, kept crying and fighting every time she was drawn under, continually resurfacing until she was weak. Jareth was no fool so he waited until she was too weak to struggle before swimming towards her and carrying her to the shore. Within moments of laying her on the shore, she coughed herself awake and yanked away from his form, lying beside her on the pebbles. He supposed that waking to find a practically naked man in possession of a tail would be quite a shock to a human girl.
"Where do you hurt, fry?" He asked her, seeking to attend to her wounds as soon as possible.
"Who are you?" She demanded with a voice hoarse from saltwater and screaming.
"I am Jareth." He replied as he reached towards her and ran a finger around one abrasion from her tumultuous adventure.
"What are you?" She once more questioned, pulling away from her rescuer's hand.
"I am one of the Finfolk, cousins to the Merfolk. Now, tell me where you are hurting." He asked once more. she hesitated before naming the various places that aches.
Several minutes of healing later, the girl was healthy in body as ever she had been yet still completely broken emotionally. During the whole healing time, she had been sobbing her eyes out, crying softly for her mother who Jareth well knew was cold dead beneath the waves.
"Have you any family, fry?" He inquired as he formed a cloak from the foaming waters, draping the newly made cloth about her shoulders, willing it to warm her through the damp of her ruined dress.
"My grandparents…and an uncle and aunt." She whispered, huddling beneath the cloak after examining it to be sure the odd creature before her had enchanted it somehow.
"I shall take you to a fisherman's hut nearby. Tell him you were shipwrecked and Jareth sent you to him. He'll care for you." He drew himself out off of the land, his tail melting away into a pair of legs clad in completely dry gray tights.
Standing to his feet, Jareth held out his hands to the little girl who grabbed them. With a single fluid motion, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her on his hip as they began to climb the rough path which led up the cliff face.
The girl tried to restrain her crying but failed miserably as her tears soaked the black cloak that hung from his bare shoulders.
"It's all right to weep, fry." He whispered into her ear, tugging her cloak tighter around her shaking body. Shock was setting in and if he didn't hurry, hypothermia from the freezing water would soon take over.
The heather brushed against his running black-booted feet as he rushed the child to the fisherman's hut. Laying her down on the welcome mat, he banged on the door of the hut, waited a moment to hear someone stirring inside before awkwardly patting the girl's shoulders and vanishing back into the night.
Released from the burden of the girl's form, he swiftly descended the stone path, diving into the sea as soon as he arrived back at the shore. He felt quite confident as the water rushed over his recently returned tail that the girl would never return so he left her with her memories.
A very few memories of her aquatic rescuer.